SCIENCE IN THEATRE FESTIVAL to Kick Off in December at The Tank

The second women-driven Science in Theatre Festival is set to kick off on December 9-11, 2022 at The Tank Theater in New York. The event will feature science-infused plays, science presentations in TED-Talk style, and discussion panels. The festival is created through the collaborative efforts of scientists and playwrights.

The Science in Theatre Festival aligns forms of theater with current scientific research in neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and epigenetics, and communicates it in a pioneering storytelling style. The festival promotes real-life role models of strong women such as immigrants, BIPOC, artists, scientists, leaders, managers, and technologists.

«‎I think we are all super aware that we live in a crucial eco/science/AI moment and want to be informed and ready to take steps. We created this format of interactive scientific experiences, where artists, scientists, and audiences can learn together. This kind of interactive, playful approach makes learning and thinking about new concepts easy.", said Tjaša Ferme, artistic director of Transforma Theatre and the festival's founder. "It is important that we change a public image, representation, awareness, and education about extraordinary women and their stories".

Three original plays will showcase interdisciplinary collaborations between playwrights and scientists during the festival. Sans Me, a neurophysiology-based performance about lucid dreaming by Catalina Florescu, created in collaboration with neuroscientist Moran Cerf. Neuroscientists are exploring new tools to help us control our dreams - and ultimately our behavior. "The main tool I use is known as single neuron recording, which is essentially eavesdropping on the activity of individual brain cells by implanting electrodes deep inside the brains of patients undergoing neurosurgery for clinical purposes", - said Moran.

Can't Make This Sh*t Up, a play based on a story of a South Korean environmental engineering professor Jaeweon Cho who invented a toilet that turns human waste into power. This play is written by Julia B. Rosenblatt.

And finally, Frozen, a musical about two women's friendship and their egg-freezing journey, was written by Zhu Yi, with music by Yoonmi Lee, in collaboration with reproductive endocrinologist Anate Brauer, MD.

"Egg freezing has rapidly gone mainstream. It's up from 475 women in 2009 to 10,936 in 2017. And during the pandemic, egg freezing retrievals increased by 39% from pre-pandemic levels. In the meantime, I have noticed a lot of myths and misunderstandings in the public's discussion about the technology, and many stereotypical portraits on the women who went through egg freezing in the media," said Zhu Yi. "So I'd like to add a few new layers to the existing narrative and show what the new fertility preservation technology really means to ordinary women's lives."

Each performance will be followed by a discussion panel dedicated to the relevant issue.

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Transforma is a New York-based not-for-profit with 501 (c)(3) organization tackling how scientific ideas and metaphysical knowledge about consciousness overlap and explore it in the arena of interactive theatre. Transforma's goal is to pioneer a new form of theatrical expression and develop a close community of artists and scientists instilled with the freedom of thinking and creating in alternative ways.

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